Strange Food

Apparently the Japanese have made lettuce taste sweet using a rare protein that messes with your tastebuds. It's called miraculin.
"Miraculin's effect lasts as long as the protein is bound to the tongue, which can be up to an hour. It makes most acidic foods taste sweet, but does not improve the taste of bitter things.

The major natural source of miraculin is an African berry, Richadella dulcifica, that is often called "miracle fruit." But it is quite difficult to extract miraculin from the berries and purify it. Thus, if miraculin were to become popular as a sweetener, a better source would be necessary. As the Japanese researchers showed, adding Richadella genes to lettuce fit the bill: The scientists were able to obtain up to 40 micrograms of miraculin per gram of lettuce leaves, a tremendous amount considering the potency of the exotic protein."

More in food news comes from Michael Pollan, the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, is the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.":
"Well, the extent of [the contamination] did. The problem has been growing over the past few years. I mean, food poisoning's always with us, there are always some nasty bugs that get into the food, but the scope of it has gotten a lot more serious. And why that is, I can only speculate, but the way we're producing meat is certainly conducive to these sorts of contaminations."
UPDATE:Wow, the more I read into this article about food contamination the happier I am to be a vegetarian. All I have to say is if you eat meat, buy ORGANIC.